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January 13th 2015

The thing about Ceci is that she is marvellously adaptable as a partner (I've seen her dancing socially with many very different leaders and always looking utterly harmoniously connected to them). And yet she is always recognisably herself, always the same, always Ceci.


January 24th 2015 

Grumpy Status Update

There's a very easy shortcut to making people believe that you are an extraordinarily gifted dancer. Just go to one of those blogs or websites where they post photos or videos of famous dancers and write a detailed critique of their dancing. When you write "The way Alicia Pons embraces, with her shoulder out of alignment like that, is going to lead to neuropathy" people will think "Wow! Mr Boaconstrictor Long-Term-Beginner from Wamalamadingdong must be an incredibly perceptive person with a deep knowledge of anatomy and physiology -- I would *love* to take classes from him." If you put "Noelia Hurtado really should learn to keep her fingers together on Carlitos's back. He must be in agonies dancing with her! Clearly, she is putting a great deal of pressure on his spine and it's obviously because she can hardly hold herself upright" everyone will draw the conclusion that you, Ms Wobbly Stilettoes from Buxtehude, must be an even better dancer than Noelia, and your embrace must be the dreamiest, most sensual, most delicious experience any leader could hope for. If you write, "When guys say they like dancing with Cecilia Piccinni, they are just pretending. She must feel horrible to dance with. Look at the precise angle of her head in this photo. It's two degrees off the perfect vertical line," well then everyone will be impressed by your deep wisdom and discernment. They will be queuing up to take you into their arms, as, obviously, if you can find fault even with Ceci, dancing with you must be utter nirvana.
That's how it works, isn't it? The mark of a great dancer is that they don't bother practising or working on their own dance. They just dedicate their time to making unsolicited, nitpicking, petty criticisms of any professional who seems especially successful or popular. You don't even need to look at video to judge because everyone knows that the whole purpose of tango is to look as beautiful as possible in photos. And everyone knows that the way to tell if someone is a good dancer or not is to get out a compass and protactors and measure the exact angles of their elbows and the distance in millimetres between their fingers, when they are in close embrace. Yes, that's definitely how it works. Just keep doing what you're doing, people. It's a recipe for success.